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So I know that proms and debs happen all year round but hopefully this guide can help some people when it comes to their special day. I’ll give you a guide to your make-up and my style definitely isn’t for everyone but I will give you tips for getting the best out of your formal attire.

Fashion:

Try on your dress frequently: A lot of people tend to buy their dresses months in advance and as formal dresses tend to be a lot more form fitting it’s a good idea to try your dress on every now and again to see if it still fits perfectly. By doing this you can see if you need to watch what you eat coming up to the big day or if you need the dress taken in, I’d also advise that you have a full test run of the entire outfit maybe a week before the day to ensure that everything looks right together and to see if any last minute adjustments need to be made.

Break your shoes in beforehand: There is nothing wrong with buying a fancy new pair of high heels for a special event, there is something wrong with being in pain all night because your shoes haven’t been broken in. My tip would be to wear your shoes in little by little, I wore mine every few days for a good few weeks and started at about 15 minutes and continually increased the time I spent in them. While doing this I would suggest that you try and walk as normally as possible and do everyday activities, I did tidying and housework in mine! You don’t want to walk slowly and elegantly and convince yourself that you are able to handle your shoes then find that you can’t take two steps when the big day rolls around when you are face with slopes and uneven surfaces! My Debs shoes were about 6 inches high with a thick platform but I still needed to get used to them and this definitely paid off.

You can have style and function: Just because something is nice doesn’t mean it is necessarily the most suitable for the job and you can still have something that looks nice and serves a function. I had a clutch bag for both of the debs I went to but I made sure that this clutch bag was big enough to fit my flat shoes, camera, phone and all of my make-up for touch-ups.

Don’t be afraid to get crafty: If you are in anyway handy it can save you a lot of money to be crafty. My clutch was initially a handbag with a long white strap but I thought it looked cheap so I simply cut it off and it looked much nicer. Instead of buying an expensive shawl I bought a few meters of material from Guiney’s or a fabric shop and my aunt made my shawl which saved me a lot of money and it ensured that I had exactly the shawl I wanted, my aunt also made my underskirt which puffed out my dress and it meant that I didn’t need to spend €50 buying a premade one. Being gifted with a needle and thread also helps out at you making you outfit more comfortable on the night. My aunt sewed my shawl with a stitch to the sleeve of my dress and it meant that I didn’t have to be fixing my shawl for the night.

Looking Fabulous doesn’t need to break the bank: Although you are going to a formal occasion you don’t need to spend hundreds or thousands in order to look nice and occasion appropriate. I went to a Debs in 5th Year and 6th year I got a €7 bag from Penney’s and used it for both, I wore the same shoes to both and my flat shoes I took with me were from Penney’s. I would also suggest that you keep an eye out in shops, I found my black and white fascinator while looking for my shoes and I got it for €5 down from €30 because it was last season’s stock. Both of my Debs dresses were from EBay and both came in at under €50 with shipping. There is a lot to be saidbrowsing bargains and having a bit of a D.I.Y. attitude.

Make-Up

Practice, Practice, Practice: Whether you are doing your own make-up or getting it done professionally it is important to have a test run, make sure you are exactly sure about what you want to do and it’ll guarantee the best results possible on the day.

Bring make-up for touch ups: Pretty self-explanatory. You don’t need to bring your entire make-up bag with you but just a lipgloss or lipstick and maybe some pressed powder and a little pocket mirror.

Take your time, don’t panic: You definitely need to give yourself time to get everything right, don’t leave everything until the last minute or you may run out of time. It took me three attempts to get my eyelashes on in 6th year so always give yourself time to fix any disasters that may occur.

Keep it simple: Simple doesn’t need to mean boring. Think about colours suit you, golds and neutrals suit most skin tones but with liquid eyeliner and false lashes it’s very easy to make a statement, be careful if you plan on using bright colours, it’s good to have a classic look and have something that’s quite timeless as purple statement lips may not be in vogue when you look back in 20 years (this is rich coming from the girl who went to both of her Debs with pink hair).

So I hope you found these tips helpful, so if you have your Debs/Prom coming up remember to bring a camera, takes loads of pictures, dance a load and have a great night! Please comment, like and especially share using the buttons below, thanks for reading, now I’ll leave you with a cheesy tune that’s always played at proms.

So I was thinking about the kind of blogs I would like to post and what some people might find to be helpful, when it hit me, I have a head of pink, purple and blue hair and with brightly coloured hair becoming more and more popular and mainstream with artists such as Rihanna’s red hair or Katy Perry’s blue hair I thought I could share my hair dyeing history and give you some tips. So I will give you an abridged history of all of the colours I have dyed my hair because there has been many variation of colours and I have had the same colours multiple times and I will not include “natural” colours my hair has been such as brown and blonde streaks and highlights, etc, however, if anyone of you would like me to go more in depth about these hairstyles I will gladly add to this post or put up another blog.

Blue
So I dyed my hair properly for the first time when I was 14 years old, I went to the hairdressers and asked for them to dye my entire head blue but sadly the hairdresser told me that I would look silly so I settled for blue streaks instead. Although I liked the way it looked be warned, getting your hair coloured is incredibly pricey and blue is a hair colour that will run out of your hair incredibly fast so it will need constant maintenence if you don’t want greeny-yellow streaks in your hair.

Green and PinkMy next major colour change was when I was 15 and it was the first time I had dyed my hair myself. I chose to go for a green fringe with a pink section underneath my hair. This hairstyle was a “love it or hate it” affair, I really liked it. Once again, green is a colour that will come out of your hair quite quickly without constant upkeep.

RedMy next drastic change after a bout 0f blonde sections and red streaks was a full on D.I.Y. red head. Thankfully for those of you who are only starting to dye your hair now there is a vast range of commercial brands such as Nice and Easy and L’Oreal making red hair dye but unfortunately when I was dyeing my hair red there was not a great selection so I chose various brands and shades of semi-permanent red. Red is a colour that I found a lot easier to handle than the previous colours although I was quite vigilant with its upkeep, topping up the colour bit by bit maybe every two weeks. It is much easier to skip a dyeing session with red because although a lot of dye will come out when you wash your hair (my bathroom used to look like a murder scene) your hair will change to a lighter red and then a more orange toned colour before noticeable blonde and copper streaks appear. If you have light brown hair naturally like I do I found that I could get away for quite a while without touching up my roots when I had red hair because all though it’s bright and eyecatching colour it can still be quite dark in tone so brown roots do not create too stark a contrast.

PurpleNext came purple. Once again when I was dying my hair purple I did not have a huge selection of purples to choose from, however if I may dye my hair purple again but a different shade. With some shades of purple they will fade to a nice lilac, mine however was fine at first but because it was quite a blue based purple it tended to fade to a greyish if I didn’t dye it on an ongoing basis.

PinkThis has been possibly my favourite hair colour I’ve had and I have had it the longest, about 2 and a half years on and off. I’ve experimented with various shades and brands and have found my preference. I think pink is quite a long lasting colour because depending on the shade you can get many washes out of it and it still looks decent as it fades to a nice baby pink. This colour does not look great when your roots begin to show but I do love this colour. I’ve also added a few variations, like a green streak and like I said earlier I currently had a purple and bubblegum blue layer underneath.

Tips, Advice and Recommendations
So with that brief history out of the way, I have some advice and tips for people who might be interested in adding some colour to their hair.

1. Do your Research:Before taking the plunge and dyeing your hair why not type in “blue hair” or whichever colour you like into Google Images. Whether you’re going to a hairdressers or doing your hair yourself it’s good to have a clear idea of what you’re doing. Do you want a streak, a fringe or your whole head your chosen colour?

2. Experiment: If you dye your hair one particular colour and feel another one may suit you better or another brand may have a different formulation you should try it out. If it turns out that you preferred the original colour, bright colours are semi-permanent so it only takes a few washes before you can put the other colour over it!

3. Wash your hair with Sulfate-free shampoo: For those of you who don’t know, a basic introduction to sulfates is that they are the stuff in your shampoo that makes it lather, they are also a big part of the reason your hair dye runs like there’s no tomorrow when you wash it. Sulfate-free shampoo reduces this drastically. Many professional hair brands such as Tigi make these kinds of shampoos, however they can be quite pricey but thankfully brands like L’Oreal have made their own more affordable versions. Personally, I tend to use the Naked brand shampoos, they are a natural range of products, available in Boots stores and the best part is the shampoo is less than €6! They have a wide range to choose from and it really makes your hair colour last. It does take a while to get used to not instantly feeling a lather when washing your hair but you do feel a bit of one when you wash it the second time and it saves you the hassle of redyeing your hair constantly. I’d also recommend using dry shampoo before you wash your hair as it makes it more manageable for styling and it postpones washing your hair for a day or two.

4. Look after your hair: Unless your hair is incredibly fair most times you will need to bleach your hair before you dye it a bright or unnatural colour. Bleach seriously dries out your hair so be sure to deep condition it as much as possible to make sure it remains in good shape. I don’t straighten my hair but I would suggest that you try to avoid using heat styling products and let your hair dry naturally as much as possible until your hair is in better condition. Your hair will thank you for all of this in the long run when you don’t hair dry, brittle hair that’s full of split ends.

5. Do your own thing: If someone says they don’t like your hair but you love it that’s all that should matter :’)

Recommendations

I’ve used many brands of hairdye over the years I’ve used Stargazer which was good for my first time dyeing my hair, however every single one of my tops ended up covered in dye at the back and they washed out very quickly.

Directions is also a good brand and is easy to use and wash off of surfaces and it did seem to have better lasting power than Stargazer dyes it did still come off on some of my clothes.

Crazy Colour hair dyes are also very good and I still use them, they have a nice thick gel formula which I like as I can tell what exactly is a well coated section of hair and what isn’t. Crazy Colour dyes come in a huge selection of colours and they are relatively inexpensive. They wash well and don’t run as much as other dyes. One thing I will say is that the dyes do tend to go on darker than the finished product.

Fudge Paint Box dyes are possibly my favourites, they are a little more pricey than the other dyes but they have an excellent formulation and wash incredibly well, they come in a good range of colours and show up true to colour.

Those are the main brands of hair dye that I have tried but I have also heard that Manic Panic and Special Fx make good hairdyes so if you have a particular colour in mind look up some reviews of the colour.

So I hope this post has been a help to your, sorry if it’s a bit long but I hope you’ve picked up some tips.

As always I’m up for any post recommendations and please don’t forget to like, share and comment.